Friday, December 13, 2013

Front wheels lifting off the ground proving 9,000+ ft-lbs of torque at the axle, so with 3:1 gearing from motors to axles, proves an astounding 3,000 ft-lbs of torque, 1,500 ft-lbs from each motor. The physics is rather simple. The Tango weighs 3,326 lbs, and the driver another 130 lbs, with a front-rear weight distribution of 43/57, it takes over 9,000 ft-lbs on an imaginary monster torque wrench attached to the rear axle to get the front wheels off the ground. This was only accomplished because the track was so sticky, as it was prepped with VHT; otherwise the tires just spin, as in the previous burnout. The 3:1 gears, the only gearing it has, redline the motors at 172 mph. We've never gone that fast, but we're fairly certain the top speed is over 150 mph, as it has an official time of 106 mph in the standing 1/4-mile in 12.1 seconds. 0-60 mph was 3.2 seconds.

Drag race against a noisy Honda

Drag race against a quiet Tesla Roadster

Tango plowing through over 2 feet of snow in Spokane, Washington

Dirt road driving and fording stream near Mt. Shasta California

Cornering around Frank Langella in Robot and Frank trailer and near beginning of movie—A great movie by the way.

The Tango recorded the fastest speed through the Consumer Reports Emergency Lane Change Maneuver (Moose Test), as announced at the X-Prize summit conference by David Champion, Director of Consumer Reports Automotive Testing.

Cornering while burning rubber in Commuter Cars' parking lot

Lanesplitting on Bayshore Freeway on San Francisco Peninsula—legal according to the unanimous responses of 67 California Highway Patrol and various other police officers from San Francisco to Beverly Hills. In fact, when two Tangos were displayed at the San Francisco Auto Show a few years ago, we were showing a lanesplitting video. As people asked if it was legal, we asked them to ask at the California Highway Patrol booth across the aisle, where they were told that it was okay. The reason is simple. The Tango is the same width as most police motorbikes. It is 5-inches narrower than a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, and can maneuver more quickly than a motorcycle, that in order to react to an emergency, has to first countersteer before leaning and turning. Lanesplitting is described as legal for motorcycles on the California Highway Patrol web site. It is not legal in any other state to our knowledge, but is legal in most of the rest of the world. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Motorcycle Safety Division has a web page on lanesplitting (see Downloads on our web page Click Here for NHTSA PDF ) where they explain why lanesplitting is probably safer for bikes than to be in the lane where they can't easily bee seen and can get crushed between cars. They also believe that it may help traffic congestion. We consider it a foot-in-the-door toward reaching the ultimate goal of having single-occupant drivers only taking up half of a lane, instead of a full one, thus allowing 4,400 vehicles per hour per lane, instead of only 2,000 which is the maximum throughput for any other car. (See Downloads Booz-Allen-Hamilton / UC Berkeley studies funded by CalTrans.

Lanesplitting in George Clooney's Tango on the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California. Video by Chris Payne, director of Who Killed the Electric Car.

Traffic jam with comments by Hattie Kauffman, on The Early Show

Lanesplitting as viewed from the inside of the Tango. Click for 4-minute Lanesplitting Video if you want to see why a Tango driver is having infinitely more fun than everyone else in a traffic jam.

Washington Governor Gregoire explains on KHQ News, why she thinks Commuter Cars could become the country's largest car manufacturer

Lane sharing with two Tangos in a single lane at 65 mph comfortably driving side by side on the freeway. Normally Tangos and motorcycles stagger in order to give additional safety just like cars in full-sized lanes, however, occupancy is still more than double. Recently in heavy traffic, after some lanesplitting, I caught up to a group of 4 staggered motorcycles in the HOV lane. The 5 of us didn't take up as much room on the freeway as two cars.

Hence, my belief that the Tango is the fastest, safest, most convenient, and most fun car to drive, of any car in history, for 90% of all urban trips!